News in 250

BEER PRICE-HIKE PROTESTM
MERSEY MPs yesterday increased pressure on Alistair Darling to axe his beer tax in next week’s Budget by signing a cross-party Commons motion opposing further rises.

They warned that the planned 3p a pint extra levy will accelerate pub closures now running at 39 a week nationwide.

Beer sales in pubs are down 16m pints a day since a 1979 peak, and are now at their lowest since the 1930s Depression.

SUSPECTS STAYING PUT
Anti-terror police have been granted more time to question 11 men suspected of plotting to detonate a bomb in the north-west.

Magistrates have granted officers a further week to hold seven men - aged 22 to 37 - arrested during raids in Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire.

Another four suspects, aged 23 to 41, can be held for two more days.

PRIMARK HORROR
A PRIMARK security guard was stabbed in broad daylight yesterday.

Horrified shoppers rushed to help the man after the attack at the store in Wallasey.He is currently in a stable condition in Arrowe Park Hospital.

The attacker is described as white , around 5ft 10in tall and stocky, with a Mancunian accent.

SEARCH FOR POLAR SCIENTIST'S FAMILY
HISTORIANS are searching for the family of a young Merseyside scientist who died while exploring the Antarctic Peninsula more than 30 years ago.

Michael Walker, 21, from Maghull, went missing on Mount Peary in September, 1976.

He is one of 27 scientists who will be honoured by a memorial in St Paul’s Cathedral.Anyone with information should contact Brian Dorsett-Bailey on 01923 447422.